Wednesday, May 23, 2012

With new ownership, including Stan Kasten, in the Dodgers ownership picture, many Dodger fans assumed — and hoped — Ned Colletti's job was on the line. But the Dodgers' MLB-best start has put that issue on the back burner.

Yeah, it's early in the season, and it would be a real bummer if the Dodgers were just peaking way too early. But with Matt Kemp out, everybody seems to be contributing, including players Ned Colletti acquired with what could have been Hiroki Kuroda's salary. Writes Jon Heyman in "Signs point to return for Dodgers GM Colletti, not a shock considering success" at CBSSports.com:

The Dodgers have been bolstered by the astute picks of scouting director Logan White, and Colletti scored big this winter by taking the $14 million that incumbent veteran starter Hiroki Kuroda sought and instead using it to buy Chris Capuano, Aaron Harang, Jerry Hairston Jr., Juan Rivera, Tony Gwynn and now Bobby Abreu, utilizing some backloading to add several nice complementary pieces.

In "And now a few words in praise of Dodgers GM Ned Colletti," Steve Dilbeck of the LA Times' "Dodgers Now" blog also mentions Colletti's acquisition of Mark Ellis, his trust in A.J. Ellis and his patience with Ronald Belisario. "Colletti brought this Dodgers team in at $91 million and is getting plenty of bang for fairly modest buck," Dilbeck writes.

Add to those moves the long-terming of Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw's two-year deal and a potential new contract for Andre Ethier, as well as the rookie successes of Scott Van Slyke, Ivan De Jesus and Elian Herrera. Heck, even Adam Kennedy's OBP is a not-hideous .348.

Everything's turning up Ned so far this season, and his detractors will have to accept the Dodgers' hot play likely means he'll be sticking around. Will it be worth it for a good playoff run? Has he learned from the Jason Schmidt, Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre, et al., debacles? Only Stan Kasten can determine that.

17
comments:

I fully acknowledge that I carry an anti-Colletti bias, but I still think that a lot of the on-field success we had during the McCourt regime was in spite of moves he's made rather than because of them.

I thought with two months in we were 1/3 of the season down, in reality it's 1/4 of the season and anyone who follows baseball should know how laughable it is to draw any conclusions at this point. They say you shouldn't get too high when you win and not too low when you lose, this team is due for regression big time but hopefully a weak division (yes it now appears to be true) and expanded wild card will still let them in the dance. Ends don't justify the means, he still needs to be canned.